


The Rain is Burning and I Am Cold

by Spark_Doodles



Series: Story Thieves Appreciation Week 2020 [1]
Category: Story Thieves Series - James Riley
Genre: Gen, I'm just projecting thanks, One Shot, Sanderson family angst, Story Thieves Appreciation Week, Story Thieves Appreciation Week 2020, What else did you expect from me, kiel owen doyle and gwen are all mentioned but not actually there so I'm not tagging them, now i have to write a fic in christian/catherine's pov to prove I don't hate them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:21:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24276547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spark_Doodles/pseuds/Spark_Doodles
Summary: “You know,” Catherine continued, turning back to Bethany, “you can tell me anything that’s bothering you.”Except for anything important.“Okay.”“I’ll always be here to help you, sweetie.”Except for when you’re not here.“Thanks, mom.”Story Thieves Appreciation Week day 1: Favorite book.Set between The Stolen Chapters missing chapters 4 and 5, before Bethany knows about Doyle's cameos.
Relationships: Bethany Sanderson & Catherine Sanderson
Series: Story Thieves Appreciation Week 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1769653
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	The Rain is Burning and I Am Cold

Bethany paced back and forth across her room, her bare feet making pat-pat-pat sounds against her carpet.  
_You should tell them._   
Pat-pat-pat.  
_They’ll understand._  
Her turns grew sharper until her steps aligned with each beat of her heart, and then that was all she could hear and all she could think of. Pat-pat-pat. Bump-bump-bump.

Knock-knock-knock.

Bethany froze.   
_ Come in, _ she wanted to call, but her mouth only gasped. She forced herself to breathe. In-out, in-out. Pat-pat-pat, to the door. A click opened it, and a smile stood on the other side.

“Hey, sweetie,” her mom said, stepping inside and standing just too close.   
Bethany swallowed her need for space, replacing it with a “Hi.”   
“I heard Owen call earlier. Is everything alright?”   
She shifted. “Oh, yeah. He just needed help with some homework.”   
“Is that all? You sounded agitated.”   
“It was hard homework.”   
Her mom nodded.

She studied the room, taking in the unmade bed, old clothes that were strewn over a chair, and the backpack dissected onto the floor. Not to mention everything else.   
“You know,” Catherine continued, turning back to Bethany, “you can tell me anything that’s bothering you.”   
_ Except for anything important. _   
“Okay.”   
“I’ll always be here to help you, sweetie.”   
_ Except for when you’re not here. _   
“Thanks, mom.”

Catherine flashed another smile, then stepped back into the hallway. “I’m headed out to buy groceries. Do you want to come?”   
“Oh, no, that’s okay,” Bethany said, grabbing the door. “Drive safe.”   
“Alright, love you!”   
“Yep. Love you too.”

She shut the door and slid down it, listening to her mom pat-pat-patting down that hall (though with her shoes, it was more of a thump-thump-thump) and then the car growling as it pulled down the street.

Then it was silent. Almost.

Bump. Bump-bump.

She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t tell them. Not her mom, or Owen, or Kiel, or-   
_ Anyone. _   
Three people. That’s all she knew. All the people who had her back, who she could trust.

And she’d broken it. Once they knew, she’d lose them all.

_ UGH! _

“You ruin everything,” she whispered. Only it wasn’t enough, so she sat up, slammed her hands onto her thighs, and shouted, “ _ Everything!” _   
Bethany climbed to her feet and stomped heavily. Thump-thump-thump. The carpet muffled it, so she ran to her bed and pressed her palms against the mattress. She jumped, leaning against the bed to go higher and louder.

THUMP-THUMP-THUMP. THUMP-THUMP-THUMP. THUMP-THUMP- _ slip _ -BOOM _. _

Bethany gasped, crumpled on the floor. Her feet stung, from jumping, and her elbow throbbed from where it had hit the bed frame, and her head just  _ hurt. _   
_ Whatever, _ she thought, panting. Fine. It was all just a physical sensation, she could ignore it.

She could ignore it.

She. Could. Ignore. It.

...Ow.   
“Grow up,” Bethany told herself between breaths. “It’s your fault for throwing a tantrum.” She traced a line in the carpet, her other hand resting on her side which went up-down with every breath. Up-down. In-out. Up-down.

Why did she have to mess everything up? Her dad, then Owen, Doyle, and she really shouldn’t have talked to EarthGirl, let alone have visited the planet.   
Her gaze shifted to the ceiling. She could seriously go for some Willy Wonka chocolate right now. But what if she was caught? By the characters, or worse, her mom? 

If the characters caught her taking candy, she wouldn’t be able to jump out without them wondering about it for the rest of the book. She’d have to pretend to be a lost sibling, or an Oompa Loompa or something to make an escape. What if her name appeared in the book, and that’s how her mom found out, along with everybody else in the world?!

Nope. Safer just to stay here, in her room. Forever.

So no more going into books. Not even to check on Doyle. He was freakishly smart, so he’d totally notice how desperate she was, and would blackmail her into something terrible. Kiel and Owen would understand; they were planning on mostly stopping, anyway, if she had found her dad. So nothing would really change on their side.

She rolled onto her back and rested both hands on her stomach. In-out. Up-down. In-out.

...But what if it worked? What if Doyle did find her dad? Yeah, maybe the payment was a bit concerning, and maybe he’d end up knowing more than he really should, but as long as her dad came back, wouldn’t that make up for everything? 

She couldn’t give up yet! It would make her mom properly happy, and- and yeah, it would make  _ Bethany _ happy, and then they’d be together and it wouldn’t matter at all what some random creepy kid knew about fictional worlds or what EarthGirl knew about Earth time-travel or what a snotty magician had built on Jonathon Porterhouse’s lawn, or-

But how could he find her dad if he was in  _ every book  _ in the library?

Maybe Kiel’s magic was wrong. Maybe since he’d never seen her dad, the magic had gotten confused. Maybe it had been a prank gone wrong, and that’s why they kept calling her and trying to talk to her in class because they felt terrible, seeing her freak out like this.

No. Kiel and Owen would never go behind her back like that.

(Which made the fact that  _ she’d _ gone behind  _ their _ backs really, really painful.)

Bethany was tempted to start stomping again, but she heard the car pull into the driveway. Instinctively she sat up and grabbed a book, ready to jump and prolong her alone time, but she stopped herself, staring at the cover.  _ EarthGirl: Doomsday on Argon VI. _

The same book she’d thrown herself into a few weeks ago when the spell had gone wrong. A part of her missed Gwen. The other part still couldn’t believe how many rules she’d broken. Downstairs, she could hear her mom in the kitchen.

She didn’t feel like talking to anyone just yet, not even Gwen. Instead, Bethany laid back down and propped her feet atop her bed (thud-thud), then opened the book near the middle, at her favorite part. She hadn’t read a book properly in a while.

It was nice.

At some point, her mom had called her downstairs for lunch, but Bethany didn’t remember what they ate because she’d read through it. Something crunchy. Bethany  _ had _ noticed the looks her mom had given her, a mix of surprise and concern, but she’d ignored those. She was allowed to read books, wasn’t she?

Back upstairs, she finished  _ EarthGirl. _ It was a good ending, but also a cliffhanger, which was annoying since Bethany didn’t own the next book.   
She sat in the same pose for a while, her feet on the bed, and her head on yesterday’s sweatshirt, hands tugging at her hair. 

One problem at a time, she could take it. She could come up with a plan to keep Doyle from learning anything he shouldn’t, while still learning anything he’d found regarding her dad. Bethany could fix it:  _ all  _ of it, if she had the time!

“Bethany!” Her mom called from downstairs. “Owen and Kiel are here.”   
She just had to keep them out of it.


End file.
